


Volleys

by EvilMuffins



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Happy Ending, Past Abuse, Recovery, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-05-16 17:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14815587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/pseuds/EvilMuffins
Summary: Shiho had thought about her last meal before, a little game she would play with herself, imagining that she was a prisoner while staring out the window during elementary school classes.----Pain, love, one after the other in a stream of volleys.





	Volleys

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the canceled Volley Star zine.

Maybe she did deserve this.

The thoughts- the waves of certainty, the lulls of doubt- came at her like a flurry of volleys over the net, served one after the other, pummeling, until she could take no more.

In the same way, the atrocities that she suffered at the hands of that man continued, a barrage that she was powerless to lob back his way.

She had only wandered up onto the roof to think at first, but the thoughts pursued her up the stairs, cornering her at the rail, catching in her hair, whispering her in ears, indistinguishable from the wind.

The silence dropped between them, a ball bouncing down the steps, back down into the darkness of the stairwell where Ann stood.

_ 1… _

_       2… _

_               3… _

“Shiho,” Ann brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear, eyes wide and blue, stealing from the sky stretching above the roof. “What are you doing up here?”

“Lunch,” Shiho uttered. It was lunch time, wasn’t it? Or maybe nearly time for clubs to start… No, her stomach wasn’t lurching yet, so not practice…

Ann let a out a laugh, a sound fragile as the friendship bracelet she had once made for Shiho during art class, not long after their first exchange over her painting skills. Just as well-crafted, the elastic had snapped only weeks later. “I, um, don’t see your lunchbox.”

Shiho plucked at the hem of her skirt, the one she loathed to slip on each morning, dreading the place she was about to wear it to. “I… I forgot it…”

“You can share some of mine, then.” The corners of Ann’s eyes crinkled as she smiled, in that particular way that always left Shiho helpless but to smile back.

Shiho had thought about her last meal before, a little game she would play with herself, imagining that she was a prisoner while staring out the window during elementary school classes.

She had never really imagined it to be hotdogs cut up into little octopuses…  _ octopi _ ? How did they say it again in English? The teacher had only just gone over the names of various creatures yesterday. Ann would know.

If she were to stop picking at food that she couldn’t even taste, Shiho could have opened her mouth instead to ask if she was making the right decision.

Ann would know.

* * *

Maybe she did deserve this after all.

Was it really alright for her to think something like that?

Ann would know.

Head shifting against the warm, plush sleeve of her girlfriend’s sweater, Shiho gazed upward into eyes sparkling as they reflected the glow off the TV screen. What had they been watching again? A romance? Shiho thought that she might have dozed off shortly after it had started. The luxury of waking was not something to be taken for granted.

Although she was stronger now- in more ways than she had thought possible back during their school days what seemed like so long ago- a long afternoon out had taken its toll on her. Weariness blanketed in contentment folded over her, much in the same way she had often felt after practice during middle school, before the nightmare faced at Shujin had ever begun. It all felt like a dream now. 

“Doing alright there?” Ann asked, patting the throw-pillows in search of the remote, having used the cover of darkness in the dim room to make its grand escape from the strenuous bout of channel flipping the girls had put it through.

“Yeah,” Shiho yawned, burrowing back into the coziness found in Ann’s side. “I think maybe tackling Destinyland today might have been a little too much for me…”

Finally locating the remote between her thigh and the cushion, Ann stopped the movie as it went into credits. It had definitely been a romance, the more she thought of it, but Shiho was far too tired to criticize Ann’s taste, which unlike many other things in her life, had not gotten any better since their school days.

“Maybe it was a little over ambitious,” Ann admitted, and Shiho sighed as their fingers intertwined, “But let’s face it, would you even be Shiho Suzui if you didn’t go all-out with everything you put your mind to?”

Shiho allowed her eyes to flutter shut as she melted into the soft brush of lips against her temple, no doubt leaving behind the same glittery gloss she had only just wiped from her cheek.

Contentment and happiness, they came in volleys now, one after the other, serve and spike, until she could never get enough.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really proud of this one, so kudos are appreciated!


End file.
